कोई है / Koi Hain?! / Is Anybody There?!
In कोई है / Koi Hain?! / Is anybody there?!, Nishant Shukla explores the nature of observation and the self’s negotiation within systems of surveillance – both sacred and technological. Spiritual practices instil a sense of accountability to an unseen gaze, fostering reverence and a quest for transcendence. Today, this responsibility has shifted to the lens of surveillance technologies. Through a layered composition of photographs, film, responsive sound and visuals, Koi Hain?! crafts a world of quiet observation, questioning how we respond to the systems that monitor, judge, or comfort us.
Building on his book Seeking Moksha, Shukla’s desolate landscapes trace architectural interventions and obsolete technologies of their solitary inhabitants. His photographic process shifts back and forth between analogue and digital, iterating through film, screen prints, handmade paper, crumpling, low-res scanning, and reprinting – a textural interplay that echoes ideas of fidelity, representation, and decay in image-making.
Each visitor encounters the silent watch of an analogue CCTV camera, enveloped by a spatialised soundscape built from field recordings. Moving through, the audience intervenes with the sounds and visuals in real-time, within an environment they cannot fully control. A disorientated, non-linear experience evokes an unknowable gaze that may or may not be monitoring the space. Who, or what, is watching us - a lingering remnant of belief systems or the unblinking eyes of technology?
The film KOI HAIN follows the intimate, performative rituals of a man offering tears to a river – a gesture of surrender and transcendence, a universal yearning to be seen by something beyond oneself.
Referencing the pursuit of ‘Moksha’ – liberation from the cycle of rebirth – Koi Hain?! embodies our shared search for the unattainable. In a contemporary ‘panopticon,’ this multi- sensory installation becomes both a collective and individual encounter with the awareness of being watched. We are reminded of the invisible forces - whether gods or algorithms - that shape our choices, as the uncertainty of being truly seen, or merely observed, brings both comfort and unease.
Text by Ana Prendes
Developed at Lake, London.
Photographs, objects, visuals & 8.2 surround sound Installation / Photographs / Field recordings: Nishant Shukla
Sound Design (Max Msp & Ableton): Nishant Shukla & James Wilkie
Camera tracking / Visual Design (Touch Designer): Nishant Shukla
Video, 5.1 surround sound 17 mins Film by Nishant Shukla
Video Edit:: Rana Ghose & Nishant Shukla
Sound Design & Colour Grading: Nishant Shukla
Building on his book Seeking Moksha, Shukla’s desolate landscapes trace architectural interventions and obsolete technologies of their solitary inhabitants. His photographic process shifts back and forth between analogue and digital, iterating through film, screen prints, handmade paper, crumpling, low-res scanning, and reprinting – a textural interplay that echoes ideas of fidelity, representation, and decay in image-making.
Each visitor encounters the silent watch of an analogue CCTV camera, enveloped by a spatialised soundscape built from field recordings. Moving through, the audience intervenes with the sounds and visuals in real-time, within an environment they cannot fully control. A disorientated, non-linear experience evokes an unknowable gaze that may or may not be monitoring the space. Who, or what, is watching us - a lingering remnant of belief systems or the unblinking eyes of technology?
The film KOI HAIN follows the intimate, performative rituals of a man offering tears to a river – a gesture of surrender and transcendence, a universal yearning to be seen by something beyond oneself.
Referencing the pursuit of ‘Moksha’ – liberation from the cycle of rebirth – Koi Hain?! embodies our shared search for the unattainable. In a contemporary ‘panopticon,’ this multi- sensory installation becomes both a collective and individual encounter with the awareness of being watched. We are reminded of the invisible forces - whether gods or algorithms - that shape our choices, as the uncertainty of being truly seen, or merely observed, brings both comfort and unease.
Text by Ana Prendes
Developed at Lake, London.
Photographs, objects, visuals & 8.2 surround sound Installation / Photographs / Field recordings: Nishant Shukla
Sound Design (Max Msp & Ableton): Nishant Shukla & James Wilkie
Camera tracking / Visual Design (Touch Designer): Nishant Shukla
Video, 5.1 surround sound 17 mins Film by Nishant Shukla
Video Edit:: Rana Ghose & Nishant Shukla
Sound Design & Colour Grading: Nishant Shukla